Damned and Cursed | Book 10 | Fallen Skye

by Bullion, Glenn

  Contents

  Title

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  About The Author

  FALLEN SKYE

  By Glenn Bullion

  Copyright © 2020 by Glenn Bullion

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Glenn Bullion.

  Special Thanks:

  Amber Wethington Baker

  Dominque Johnson

  Kelly B. Embelton

  Kimberly Hennessey

  Rob Dean

  Also, to the readers of my website, for helping me square away the back cover text. For some reason, this novel was a tricky one.

  CHAPTER 1

  “A TABLE FOR one, please.”

  The young man working the front of the restaurant paused as he studied Victoria. Subtlety was a skill he lacked. The twenty-something made no effort to disguise his appreciation of Victoria’s shape. A confused, goofy smile spread across his face.

  “Really?” he asked.

  Victoria arched an eyebrow.

  “Is there something wrong?”

  Finally, the young man’s senses came back to him. He remembered he was working, and should be professional with all customers, even the ones he found attractive. His cheeks turned crimson as a look of panic settled in.

  “N-No, not at all,” he stuttered. “It’s just … you’re not waiting for anyone?”

  She let out a genuine laugh. The boy was cute. With an exaggerated sigh, she gestured to the laptop case she carried at her side.

  “Not tonight. This is something of a working dinner. A few web meetings.” She couldn’t help teasing him, just a little. “But thank you for asking.”

  “Oh, no! That’s not what I … ” He cleared his throat, regaining his composure. “Let’s find you a table.”

  Her eyes drifted across the restaurant as they weaved their way around booths and tables. Human life in one of its purest forms was on display. Conversation, laughing, dinner. While she couldn’t eat human food, the scent was always alluring. Humanity had come up with fascinating ways to prepare food over the centuries. The aroma in the restaurant blended with the delicious nectar the humans carried in their veins. Victoria could feel her thirst building. Perhaps the young man leading her to a booth would get more of her than he expected by the end of the evening.

  He turned to face her, eyeing her one last time. Her thoughts drifted to her choice of clothes. A pair of jeans, a loose turquoise blouse, open-toed sandals. Nothing too exotic or revealing. She looked like any other red-headed, thirty-year-old woman that needed more time in the sun. It wasn’t her goal to stand out, but for a vampire, that wasn’t always easy.

  “Is this okay?” he said, gesturing to an empty booth by the window.

  “It’s fine. Thank you.”

  Her targets sat on the other side of the restaurant, but that didn’t matter. She gave the man one last smile as she shimmied across the bench. The setting sun was over her shoulder in the window, bathing her in warm light.

  “Your server will be right with you.”

  Victoria nodded. The young man walked away, his heart still pounding in his chest. She could hear the enticing rhythm, the steady beating of his life. Too many nights had gone by with cold blood from a bag. That would have to change soon.

  She opened her laptop, for appearance, and laughed quietly as she took in the scene. Her latest case had taken her to some unusual places. A late-night stakeout at a morgue. An abandoned amusement park, where two of her persons of interest merely ended up having sex in an old roller coaster car. She somehow didn’t think when she first made the trip to Wyoming that she’d end up at a restaurant.

  Her laptop chimed, surprising her. A message hovered in the corner from Zoey, the teenage vampire living with her. She had seen that Victoria was online and reached out to say hello.

  The message was simple.

  What are you up to?

  Victoria reached for the keyboard, her fingers flying.

  Can’t talk now.

  A few moments of silence, but it didn’t last. Victoria sighed in both amusement and frustration when the laptop chimed once again.

  Kevin and Leese got back together.

  Victoria laced her fingers together and leaned her elbows on the table, reading the message several times. Her thoughts went to the young couple, the witch and the human.

  A satisfied smile escaped.

  Of course, they got back together. She’d wondered how long it would it take.

  She liked to think she was above the simple romantic issues humans faced. Do I look pretty? Does he like me? What does he think of these shorts? Relationships were so fleeting, temporary. She’d been alive long enough to know they never lasted. Time made sure of that. Even among supernatural beings.

  But connection made the world go around. Seeing her young friends, Alex and Cindy, Kevin and Leese, grow and care for one another, warmed her unbeating heart.

  Victoria responded with a simple smiley face and went offline. She scolded herself as she typed the colon and closing parenthesis. It wasn’t long ago that keyboard slang first crept into human consciousness. She swore she’d never type symbols that disguised themselves as expressions, or LOL.

  However, like all things humanity, she got sucked in.

  A laugh off in the distance pulled her back to the restaurant. She took a deep breath, focusing on why she was alone at a booth in the first place. She’d been away from home too long. One case after another, it felt like. An insane doctor killing werewolves in Oregon. An angry werewolf running loose in Idaho. Now, more madness in Wyoming. She couldn’t wait to go home to her mansion, see her friends once again. Enjoy the luxuries that only a four-hundred-year-old vampire could earn.

  But not yet. There was one more case to tie up. More humans, doing inhuman things.

  Leaning forward, she closed her eyes, and just listened.

  It had taken decades for Victoria to hone her enhanced senses. Hearing things she didn’t want to, not hearing things that she did. It was a mess. Any vampire could hear better than a human, but it took training and control to gain anything from it.

  She started as she always did, by doing something that others thought of as surprising. She let everything in, didn’t block anything out. A server dropped a tray of dishes in the back. Another gently flirted with a diner. An exhausted, frustrated couple tried to keep their toddler under control. A woman moaned in discomfort as she sat in the bathroom, dinner not agreeing with her.

  Victoria cut through the sounds, forced aside the clanging silverware and clinking glasses. She pulled out the conversations, the words. One couple a
rgued about their in-laws. Two couples were in the middle of laying down the rules for swapping partners. One family debated on what movie they would see after dinner.

  “I’m not sure I can be a part of this anymore.”

  She recognized the voice. A woman in her early forties. Victoria had been watching her for the past few weeks, taking notes, learning her habits. There were still so many things Victoria didn’t know. The case started out simple enough. The vampire population in a fifty-mile radius around Buck, Wyoming, was dwindling. She thought it was petty warfare, at first. Newborn vampires fighting over territory. But in her investigation and research, she noticed two of the missing vampires had a common contact between them.

  “Karen,” her male companion said. “You know I can’t talk too much about it. But … we finally made a breakthrough. It’ll all be over soon.”

  “I don’t think I can do it.”

  “We just need you to lure in one, maybe two more. They trust you. We can’t do this without you.”

  “I won’t let another one of those monsters drink from me, Adam.”

  “Why? What happened? You hated them a month ago. Now, you’re feeling sorry for them? Did you forget what they—?”

  “I didn’t forget.” Karen’s tone turned dangerous. “I’ll never forget. But … I don’t know. I thought I’d feel better. I thought I’d be making a difference.”

  “You are.”

  “It doesn’t feel like it. I feel horrible.”

  “Karen—”

  Adam reached for her hand. How Victoria knew that, with only her ears, she didn’t know herself. It was something that came with the senses. When she focused, it was almost as if she were right there with them.

  “Listen to me, I’m not sure if the others … will just let you walk away now.”

  “Are … you threatening me?”

  “No. God, no. Karen, I’m trying to protect you. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Just get us one more. I’ll talk to them, let them know you’ve done your part, and you’re out. But one more.”

  Silence, as Karen thought it over.

  “Okay. One more. But then that’s it. I can’t start over if I’m always doing this.”

  “Great. I’m glad—”

  “Ma’am? Are you okay?”

  The fresh voice cut in, very close to Victoria. It was the server, hovering over her. She tried not to get angry. He was merely showing concern for a woman who seemed in pain, leaning over the table with her eyes shut. But he distracted her, almost pulling her senses back.

  “I’m fine,” she whispered. “Just some water, please.”

  “Are you sure? You look—”

  “Water.”

  “S-Sure.”

  The server walked away. Victoria’s ears went with his footsteps, marching across the restaurant. She tried to focus once again. She reached out, listening.

  Karen and Adam were gone.

  Standing at her booth, she saw the pair leaving, already near the front door. It was her first glimpse of Adam. Younger than Karen, sandy blond hair, a deep tan. He looked like he belonged at a beach playing volleyball, but obviously the human had many secrets. He had a hand on Karen’s lower back. Were they intimate? What was their relationship?

  Victoria dropped a fifty-dollar bill on the table and gathered her laptop. She passed her amusing companion working the front. He smiled at first, then frowned in confusion, noticing her quick meal. She returned the smile and gave him a wink.

  Karen and Adam stood in the parking lot. He held both her hands in his. Her gaze wandered as he talked. She seemed embarrassed, peering at the ground as much as looking at him.

  Victoria pulled her phone from her laptop bag and held it to her ear. She didn’t bother dialing a number, but shifted her hearing, reaching out across the lot. Not being inside the noisy restaurant, it was much easier to eavesdrop. A family of four smiled as they passed and went inside. The youngest, an energetic boy, pointed a plastic gun at her and made shooting noises. Victoria played along, throwing a hand over her heart and pretending he shot her. She blended in perfectly with the small crowd outside waiting to eat.

  “—will be fine. Just trust me.”

  “I do trust you, Adam.”

  “None of this would have been possible without you. You know that, right?”

  Karen turned red.

  “Thank you.”

  “After this is over, maybe you and I could go out to dinner.”

  “We just did,” she said, laughing.

  “No. I mean like a real dinner.”

  “I’d like that.”

  Adam leaned in for a quick peck on the cheek. They went their separate ways, with Karen stealing a peek over her shoulder. It wasn’t the most riveting of stakeouts, but Victoria finally had a new lead, and new information. After weeks of watching Karen lead a rather unassuming life, Victoria now knew she was luring vampires. What she was luring them into, that was still a mystery.

  But Adam could answer those questions.

  Victoria headed for her rental car, on the other side of the restaurant. Karen was already driving away. Victoria glared at her as she passed. Karen’s motives were another mystery, but the typical human reaction to discovering a vampire was hate and fear. It sometimes took a lot of effort to change that.

  She’d just opened the car door when she heard a voice.

  “Yeah, it’s me. I hate to say it, but Karen … we won’t be needing her anymore.”

  Victoria peered over the parked cars. She could barely see Adam, standing next to his own car. He held a phone to his ear as he leaned across the hood, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. She couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation.

  “No, no. I don’t want to do that. Look, just get a couple of the guys, and take care of it. Tonight. And Mike … make it quick, okay? She’s a good woman. She doesn’t need to suffer any more than she already has.”

  Adam hung up. He sighed as he played with his phone, turning it over in his hands. His expression was thoughtful, his eyes full of remorse.

  He slid behind the wheel.

  Victoria nearly growled. Adam was her new lead, and it was her intention to follow him.

  But Karen’s life was in danger.

  Conflicting thoughts swirled in her mind. She considered herself a good person, but wasn’t above doing the occasional bad thing to achieve a good deed. She’d killed, many times before. Was Karen worth saving? Who knew how many vampire disappearances she was responsible for?

  But Victoria had gotten to know the woman.

  Karen liked romantic comedies and was a sucker for feta cheese. She was quiet, kept to herself. After working as a receptionist at a doctor’s office, she enjoyed curling up on the couch with her two dogs. She liked to go biking, and was debating on starting an online dating account. Victoria laughed to herself as she watched through the window, as Karen made several attempts at creating a profile, and taking ridiculous selfies.

  Victoria had been wrong before. Even after four centuries, she still made mistakes. But she didn’t get a sense that Karen was truly a bad person.

  Adam started his car. If Victoria wanted to follow him, she’d have to hurry.

  He stopped at the exit to the restaurant. She had to make a choice.

  “Shit,” she muttered.

  Adam turned right, while Victoria turned left. She watched his car disappear in the rear-view mirror, still wondering if she was making a mistake. The small town of Buck’s roads were still unfamiliar to her, but she could navigate to Karen’s house fast enough.

  She picked up speed and ran two red lights. Hopefully, she wasn’t too late.

  *****

  Victoria made two passes down Karen’s street. Karen lived in a rancher. A trimmed lawn, driveway, a basketball hoop on the side of the house. Victoria was nervous, having seen no sign of Karen. Then she saw her silhouette in the living room, stretching her arms over her head. Another silhouette of a dog jumped in her arms. Everythin
g seemed to be okay. No one unusual was nearby, no one was watching her.

  Except Victoria.

  She parked in a random spot, like she did every time she invaded Karen’s privacy. Sometimes, she parked near the house and simply watched Karen from the comfort of the rental car. Other times, she parked a distance away and settled into the abandoned house across the street. Grabbing a bag of blood, she made her way toward that house, walking in between two yards. She walked through the busted back door. The stench of decay struck her enhanced nose, like it always did. The house had been used for drugs, sex, the local homeless. It had even been a bathroom. Her nose twitched involuntarily as she passed through the kitchen, stepped over a mound of garbage, and walked into the living room. She was thankful she wasn’t a werewolf.

  Victoria sat carefully on the arm of the decaying couch, careful not to touch anything she didn’t need to. She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, had done many sick and disgusting things. But if she could keep her jeans clean, she would do just that.

  She’d only been watching the house a minute when she heard a creak.

  Standing upright, she whirled in place and looked behind her. Standing at the top of the stairs was an old man. He wore black plastic bags and an old hat. His pants were torn, his shoes had seen better days. His white hair was peppered with black, in dire need of a trim. He was just as surprised to see Victoria as she was to see him. He threw his hands up, his eyes growing large.

  “Whoa, there!” he said. “Calm down, pretty lady! I thought I heard someone down here.”

  She let out a breath. She didn’t even smell him. His scent blended in with the ugly stench around them. The thought was a sad one. If nothing else, the man could use a shower.

  Victoria observed him as he made his way downstairs. He ambled, dealing with a severe limp in his right leg. As he neared the halfway point, the railing broke. He let out a squeal, and nearly fell into the living room, but Victoria was there. She moved, faster than was comfortable for the human eye to follow. Vampires were capable of great speed, in quick bursts, and that prevented the homeless man from taking a nasty fall. She held him up by the chest, pushing him back onto the stairs.